Kay Norton was born in New Orleans but grew up in Oklahoma City. She earned a Bachelors in English in 1973 from Wellesley College in Massachusetts, then earned her law degree in 1976 from the University of Denver College of Law.

After completing her degree, she worked from 1976-1978 as the assistant county attorney for Weld County. During this time, she met and in 1976 married, Tom Norton and had two daughters, Paige and Whitney. Tom Norton also had a career in the public eye, including representing Greeley in the state legislature, ran for governor in 1998, worked as the director of the Colorado Department of Transportation, and served as the mayor of Greeley from 1999-2017.

From 1979-1982 Norton worked as an attorney in private practice in Greeley. In 1982 she was hired as the staff attorney and associate general counsel for Monfort Incorporated, later ConAgra Red Meats Company, serving in that position until 1989, when she was promoted to vice president of legal and government affairs and general counsel and secretary for the company and worked in that capacity from 1989-1998.

From 1995-1998 she served as the vice chairwoman of the UNC Board of Trustees. Then from 1998-2002 she worked as the vice president of UNC’s University Affairs, and general counsel and secretary to the Board of Trustees. In 2001 she briefly considered a run for the Republican nomination for the 4th Congressional District.

In 2002 Norton became UNC’s first female president, at a time when only one in five presidents in the U.S. was a woman. Though her selection as the sole finalist for the presidency was met with some opposition on campus, she served in the role for sixteen years until 2018, becoming the 4th longest president in UNC’s history. During her first year she steered the institution through reductions in state funding of nearly 50 percent and managed UNC’s transition in 2006 to NCAA Division I athletics, securing an invitation to the Big Sky Conference. She worked with Greeley city leaders to create the University District in 2009 and the Greeley Creative District in 2012. Norton faced some controversies during her tenure, including in 2016 with the UNC Bias Response team regulating free speech on campus, in 2017 with a missing consultant’s performance evaluation report of her presidency, and additionally in 2017 for the controversial stepping down of UNC’s then provost. Over the course of her time as president, Norton oversaw construction of five major student-focused building projects, including the Campus Commons, which was completed in 2019, after her retirement in June of 2018.